Monthly Archives: November 2010

The US Phone Carrier Sprint has announced that they will be extending their WiMAX Network to six more of the largest cities across the Untied States. The additional cities that the company has blanketed with the coverage include Los Angeles, Miami, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus and Washington DC. This makes 68 different cities that the WiMAX Network is available in. Sprint first started to roll out the service earlier this year and it was already available in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston and New York.

They also announced that they would be looking to extend the network to a number of other markets in the coming weeks including San Francisco, which is the home of Silicon Valley and most of the tech industry.

In order to use the new, faster network from Sprint you must have a device that is Sprint 4G enabled. WiMax stands for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access is is considered to be one of the fastest networks currently available to US carriers with the capability to deliver up to 40 Mbit per second. It will be interesting to see if other companies adopt the network. Sprint has already reported increased speeds across all of their 4G devices which are able to use WiMAX and have decided to continue to spread the network in an effort to prepare for the upcoming generations of smart devices that will likely be able to make more use of the network than previous generations.

It will be interesting to see how quickly the network begins to spread over the coming months. Sprint already has 68 markets that are WiMAX-enabled, and they have shown no signs of slowing down their operation to expand the network anytime soon. The move is one that will not only benefit the company, but will benefit their hundreds of thousands of customers as well.

Although spyware is mostly reserved for systems that run on a Windows platform, SecTheory, a security firm suggests that perhaps the newly acquired Hewlett Packard webOS platform could also be forced to deal with spyware concerns in the very near future.

The security firm claims that they have already been able to find a number of flaws in the operating system that could potentially leave it open for spyware harassment and a plethora of different exploits that could hinder the experience of the end user. One exploit that the firm detailed involved the data field in the contacts app which can be used to run different types of code. This issue was actually already addressed with the release of webOS 2.0, but there are still quite a few errors that were detailed by SecTheory that have yet to be fixed. These exploits include a denial of service error, cross-site scripting issues that could leave webOS devices vulnerable to attack and a floating-point overflow issue.

Hewlett Packard will likely move quickly to fix all of the issues that were pointed out by the security firm SecTheory, especially since the company just recently acquired Palm OS and is looking to integrate the technology into a umber of their own unlocked cell phone next year. Sectheory speculated that webOS has been exposed as an underdeveloped platform which will make the platform more enticing to hackers and coders who are looking to infect your smart device with malware and spyware in an effort to capture information.

Although no operating system is completely secure, the flaws that were exposed in the framework of webOS devices should be worrisome to individuals that were looking to purchase a device that runs on the platform. It is clear that HP has a great deal of work to do before consumers should feel completely safe while using the platform.

Not all unlocked cell phone are able to deliver video in 1080p at this time, but it is certainly the direction that the industry is heading. Now, KDDI’s R&D Labs has developed a method for getting the most out of your HD movie streams while you are out and about and not connected to WiFi network with a stable connection. The technology that they have been developing will allow you to zoom in on particular parts of the feed within the movie. The stream will then be automatically cropped from the far-away server. This will allow you to take a look at only the parts of the video that you would like to see, instead of having to watching the entire screen. The best part is that even the cropped images will be delivered in HD despite the fact that they will be full screen.

Even if you do not have an HD screen on your phone, you shouldn’t notice much reduction in quality as you zoom in on the video. The company developed the feature for users and companies alike. The upside for companies is that you will have much less data moving back and fourth because the user is only loading a portion of the video instead of the whole thing, and the user gets to see exactly what they want on the screen.

A video of the technology made its way to the web today and has attracted a lot of attention from various tech websites. It will be interesting to see if other companies become interested in a similar technology. As the streaming of movies over smart devices becomes more regular, features such as this, or any other cost cutting feature will be highly desired by mobile companies looking to cut back on their spending. Although these companies will incur a slight server side cost, in the end it should help them to save money.

Are you still anxiously awaiting the next release of a Symbian 3 device that makes full use of the platform that Symbian has provided? With the Nokia X7-00, you will finally get the chance to check out a device that makes use of all of the features that are available on the unlocked cell phone. The phone has a very interesting, futuristic design that should make it appeal to younger crowds, but don’t let the gimmicky design fool you; the Nokia X7-00 is very intriguing and looks like it could be a great smart phone, the first of its kind to utilize the Symbian^3 technology.

A video made its way online earlier in the day that has been quickly taken down from a number of different mirror sites that shows the phone playing a racing video game. The Symbian^3 differs from other Symbian devices because it features 4 home screens instead of the standard three that typically come with most Symbian devices. In the video that made its way online today it appears that the phone has four different speakers that allow you to play volume at a fairly high level, according to the person narrating the video.

The phone also features a 360x640 display which is fairly small when compared to other smart devices, as well as a microUSB port and an 8 megapixel camera. Unfortunately, the user the video claims that the battery can not be replaced by the user in the same way that the iPhone 4 unlocked can not be replaced. It will be interesting to see how much attention the Nokia X7-00 garners as we get closer to the release date of the device. Nokia has been quick to get the video removed from a number of different sites as it appears but you can expect the video to be widely available in the coming weeks.

The Acer beTouch is a phone that has garnered a lot of attention from a number of different websites in recent days. Although the phone does not boast the most high-powered features in the smart phone industry, it’s low price and simplicity of its features have made the device highly attractive to users who want all the functionality of a smart device without having to deal with the high prices, large size of the phones and complicated features.

The Acer beTouch will feature a 600 MHz processor that is capable of running most of the apps that will be available for the phone through the Android store. It will also feature a 2.8 inch QVGA touchscreen, which is much smaller than most android smart phones, along with a 3.2 megapixel camera, Bluetooth 2.1 capabilities, Wifi enabled and HSDPA connections.

This unlocked cell phone will reportedly start at just $264, significantly cheaper than most other smart phones. The Acer beTouch is a phone that is ideal for individuals who are just making the leap into smart devices, or for individuals that are looking for a smaller device. The phone was purposely designed for individuals on a budget who simply can not live without a smart device.

aThere have been no announcements as to whether or not the phone will be available in United States. Most reports have stated that the phone is nearing completion and is nearly ready for a release in the United States, so much so that experts have predicted that Acer could make an announcement regarding the release date of the phone over the course of the next few days. the Acer beTouch E130 was shown off at Computex 2010, where it was announced that the phone will run on the Android Froyo platform. It will be interesting to see how well the phone is received by the budgeting segment of the smart device market.

For fans who are eagerly awaiting the iPad 2, a number of rumors about the features that will be included have made their way to the web over the course of the last few days. Although you shouldn’t believe everything you hear about a product as large as the iPad 2, you have to believe that some of the rumors that have made their way online have some sort of truth behind them, or at least some safe bets as far as what features will be included. A recent article in a Chinese newspaper has shed some light on the features that Apple fans can expect int he upcoming version of the iPad.

First of all, the article said that the iPad will include a Retina Display much like the one that was featured on the unlocked iPhone 4. This provides users with higher quality screen sand video and seems like a natural next step for Apple in the development of their iPad.

The article also stated that the iPad 2 will feature a front facing camera for FaceTime video chat support, which also seems like a logical step for Apple. Most surprisingly, the report stated that the iPad 2 would feature a USB port, which is something that no previous Apple product has had. All of the data that is transferred between Apple products and PC’s and other computer go through the charging cord which also features a one-sided USB connection. It doesn’t seem likely that Apple will break from their current mold, but it would certainly be interesting and to the advantage of the user for the iPad to have a USB port to make for easier transferring of data between computers and the tablet device. It is a feature that many fans would be excited to have, but doesn’t seem to be something that would be beneficial for Apple, given the popularity of their smart devices.

Steve Jobs usually makes it a point to release a public comment on all of the feature upgrades of their devices and attempt to clearly explain why it will help the masses and more specifically their users. With Apple announcing their AirPrint features for iphone 4 unlocked that will support a number of Hewlett Packard printers, it was Jobs to spread the word about the fleshing out of the features, but he chose an odd way to do it. Instead of making a press announcement, Jobs reportedly replied to a single email to get the message out.

The email asked Jobs why he was only allowed to print on eleven different printers and inquired about when more printers would be made available. Jobs replied to the email saying that “lots more were coming soon,” and also said that “It takes time to make a giant leap in driverless printing, which is huge.”

He does have a point. Behind the surface, all of the unlocked iPhones 4 will have to have some sort of universal driver that can be read by the printers and allow them to print the information from the iPhone. Although only eleven are available now, as Apple is able to make deals with other companies you can bet that compatibility will be fleshed out and more printers will be included with the AirPrint feature.

It will be interesting to see fi Jobs addresses the email. As of right now there is no confirmation that he actually sent it and it should be taken as a rumor at this point, but the answer does seem like one that Jobs would give to this question. Driverless printing is indeed a huge step forward and it will take time for AirPrint to be fleshed out and allow for more printers. HP is expected to add compatibility for a number of their other printers in the very near future.

Acer has referred to their new smart device as both a smart phone and a tablet because of the size of the screen. The 4.8 inch screen on the phone is huge compared to other phones and will even be larger than the unlocked Dell Streak, which was highly coveted when it was announced because of the size of the screen. It will be interesting to see how well received the new Acer device is after it was announced at the Global press event that was recently held in New York City.

The phone boasted an unknown version of Android, and a quick demo of the phone was given to the eager crowd. The phone will also feature a two megapixel front facing camera that will likely work in a way that is similar to the iPhone 4, and allow users to video chat with their friends that they are speaking with on the phone, as well as an eight megapixel camera at the back of the phone that is capable of recording up to 720p video and also boasts an LED flash.

Acer did not give any clues as to what one can expect to pay for the phone, but did say that they expect the phone to first ship in the early weeks of the second quarter of 2011. An estimate of April was given to the crowd.

The phone also has a full metal body that will help to keep it from breaking, and will support Bluetooth 3.0. The Acer device will also have a 1GHz snapdragon processor along with an HDMI output, which will enable to watch whatever is playing on your phone on your HD television.

It certainly is an interesting announcement. The phone looks very similar in shape to an iPhone 4 unlocked but the metal case and huge screen definitely separate the phone from the pack. Acer has marketed the device as “100 percent smart phone and 100 percent tablet,” which is precisely what they have done with this device.

With texting becoming increasingly popular across the globe among the unlocked cell phone users, the FCC is now taking a look at how viable 911 texts would be in situations of emergency. Of course, this could potentially pose a number of problems, but if the system were not abused it could help save lives. There are plenety of situations where someone may want to silently contact 911 in order to receive help without alerting individuals around them that they are doing so.

For instance, if someone were in your house it would make a lot of sense to hide and text 911 rather than to call and risk being heard. Or, if you were running from someone and didn't have time to stop and talk, you could send a text in order to keep moving.

As of right now, it is not clear if they will expand their 911 services to include text messages. Any widespread roll out of the feature would likely require quite a bit of testing to ensure that the system works correctly and is not abused. The FCC is also reportedly looking into receiving MMS with streaming video and pictures so that you can more accurately describe your location or give the operator an idea of what police or medical officials can expect as they arrive on the scene.

It will be interesting to see if they adopt this practice. It is a good idea, but may not be as practical as expected and might actually cause more confusion and problems than the current system does, which requires that you call for help. If successful,t he program could potentially save quite a few lives.

Many new smart devices are finding that when they partner with Facebook and provide features that other phones do not for the social networking platform, their chances of success rise quite significantly. Now, the Skyfire 3.0 app for Android is going to be adding a number of Facebook features to their browser that will increase compatibility with the device.

Skyfire is known for being the web browser that allows unlocked iPhone 4 users to play flash content online even though Apple has not officially supported flash because they claim that it will make their phones vulnerable to attacks. Skyfire works by converting the flash videos into other types of videos that are more suitable for a plethora of different devices, and the fact that they are adding Facebook integration will only help the browser to grow.

In the same way that Digg and other social bookmarking sites work, Skyfire will allow users to check out the most popular content that has been bookmarked to Facebook through their browser. They have also added the “Fireplace” which gives you all of the news feeds and links, videos, and images that your friends have posted. You also can access a number of different Facebook pages, including your profile with a single click of a button.

This is good news for Skyfire users who have been hearing rumors regarding Facebook support for weeks now. With nearly the entire world on the social networking service it is smart to add integration on devices, apps, websites and everything in between. This is a move that will not only benefit thegrowth of the app, but the users who use it as well. It will be interesting to see how well the new features are received by their current users because it will take away from the browser screen and will add a number of different buttons to the browser itself, drastically changing the interface.